I suggest that, if
India is to evolve along non-violent lines, it will have to
decentralize many things. Centralization cannot be sustained and
defended without adequate force. Simple homes from which there is
nothing to take away require no policing; the places of the rich
must have strong guards to protect them against dacoity. So must
huge factories. Rurally organized India will run less risk of
foreign invasion than urbanized India, well equipped with military,
naval and air forces.

Harijan, 30-12-39, p. 391

You cannot build
non-violence on a factory civilization, but it can be built on
self-contained villages…Rural economy as I have conceived it,
eschews exploitation altogether, and exploitation is the essence of
violence.

Harijan, 4-11-39, p. 331

I must dissent from
the view that the core of planning is centralization. Why should not
decentralization lend itself to planning as well as centralization?

The Hindus, 28-6-46

The end to be
sought is human happiness combined with full mental and moral
growth. I use the adjective moral as synonymous with spiritual. This
end can be achieved under decentralization. Centralization as a
system is inconsistent with a non-violent structure of society.